Tim Banks is the CEO of APM, a Canada wide construction and property development company, with its head office in Charlottetown, PEI. My family has lived on PEI for over eight generations and I was born at the Prince County Hospital in Summerside, PEI. I am hoping someone will soon develop a blood test to authenticate when you actually become an "Islander" as I am still having problems explaining where I'm from?

Saturday, February 28, 2009

I don't know what the big deal is all about... I've been trying to get a meeting with Valerie since January 23, 2008 and she still hasn't been able to find any time to meet.... now I've been working hard for the Liberal Party since 1970 long before she knew how to spell "liberal" and she still hasn't been able to fit me in for a meeting, so what's the big deal... why should she have to explain anything to taxpayers anyway... remember the $400,000.00 wasn't really taxpayer's money as "it came out of another program"... especially when it might interfere with her vacations... I think I'll swing over to the account's committee on March 4th and if I can't get a meeting with her maybe she'll at least give me a Crybush membership....Tourism minister's day book releasedWAYNE THIBODEAUThe GuardianA P.E.I. man who became the first in the province to demand to see a provincial minister’s day book has been granted his wish.Earlier this week, Dan Aiken of Charlottetown was handed 10 pages outlining Tourism Minister Valerie Docherty’s schedule for the period between Jan. 19 and March 27. But the day book is short on details, with many appointments blacked out. Docherty is also on holidays for three weeks of the 10-week period contained in Aiken’s Freedom of Information request, which means there are no appointments during that three-week period. Aiken made the request after the tourism minister said she couldn’t appear before a legislative standing committee investigating provincial government losses at a rock concert for up to eight weeks because she was too busy. After reviewing the day book, Aiken is convinced now more than ever that Docherty could have met with the public accounts committee “There is a significant amount of information that is blacked out,” said Aiken, who is president of the Conservative Campus Club. “But frankly, I think honesty is the best policy and from what I see in this document I’m not convinced the minister was being honest. I think the minister could have met with the public accounts committee a lot sooner than March 25 as she had originally specified and even sooner than March 4 when she has agreed to attend.” Aiken made his request late last month after staff in Docherty’s office said the minister wouldn’t be able to appear before the public accounts committee until March 25. That committee wants to know more about the provincial government's decision to fund the failed Alanis Morissette concert. The concert lost more than $400,000 in taxpayers’ money. Docherty said she’s not dodging the public accounts committee, and she said the whole story was never told about her schedule. In an earlier interview, the tourism minister said she was given four dates over an eight-week period to appear before the public accounts committee. She said she wasn’t available for three of those four dates. There was never an option to choose other dates, she added.“I was given four dates. The four dates coincided with items that I just could not reschedule, one of which was a personal test at the hospital,’’ said Docherty, who is a cancer survivor. “The unfortunate thing is the way it was reported made it sound like I absolutely had nothing available. “But it wasn’t like, ‘you pick the date.’ I was offered dates that conflicted, that’s all.’’ Docherty is on vacation and out of the province. She could not be reached for comment Friday. The P.E.I. legislature confirms that Docherty will now appear before the public accounts committee on March 4 at 10:30 a.m. Aiken believes there was a concerted effort by the tourism minister to avoid the public accounts committee, something the tourism minister flatly denies. “With this documentation here before us today, we can see that there was numerous opportunities for her to meet with the public accounts committee,” said Aiken.